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Which cable for what with powered mains?


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Hey guys quick question here as I am brand new to powered speakers. I just bought a pair of EV ELX112p speakers that I am going to use for mains. I looked all over in the manual and can not find an answer. I will be using these in as mains in a live band situation and will run them mono. I want to buy good quality cables. On Sweetwater's website under the speaker cable category there is not one cable in 50' length that is a XLR. I need to run a cable from one speaker output to the other input. The output is XLR only. Do I not need a speaker cable for the output? If not what kind of cable do I need? Why are the XLR speaker cables not even offered through Sweetwater? Also do I need a speaker cable from mixer to powered mains or not? What type of cable would I need? I attached a spec sheet of my speakers. Thanks

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Standard balanced XLR Mic cable all you need as stated above, you can daisy chain one to the other, or run one from each output to each speaker on the mixer, if your in a "band" situation it really doesn't matter as "stereo" is not needed, if you are mixing from a source that is stereo run left out from mixer to one speaker right out of mixer to other speaker.

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Think of it this way. You are not actually connecting the speakers to the mixer. You are connecting the amps in those speaker boxes to the mixer and therefore you do not require speaker cables at all.

As other have said - use only XLR cables commonly known as mic cables. Get he best quality you can afford and they will serve you well. One last thing, shorter XLR cables can be connected together for more length.

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I've gotten "premium" balanced XLR cables before... and rarely did they live up to the hype. However, based on excellent reviews I've been meaning to try some of Mark/Audiopile's "quad" cables (two twisted pairs and a shield vs. a single twisted pair = redundancy/reliability) from Audiopile.net, but haven't gotten around to it since the inexpensive cables that I get at the local Music Go Round (Pro Custom or something like that) have yet to have issues or break down. Really, any quality cable with a twisted pair and a braided shield will do the trick. Neutrik ends are nice, but a luxury if you're on a budget.

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When I was running powered speakers, I made up a special power cable for one of the speakers. I got a 50-foot extension cord at my local hardware store and replaced the female plug with an IEC plug. That way I was able to connect both speakers to a common outlet (a regular extension cord plugged into the same circuit as the mixer).

 

http://www.newark.com/bulgin/px0686/iec-power-connector-plug-10-a/dp/83K9163?mckv=sCqB8vi7L|pcrid|53816214381|plid|&CMP=KNC-GPLA

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